Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma is proud to present Tracey Emin's fourth exhibition.

 

You Saved Me includes a group of new works, from embroideries and works on paper, to neons and sculptures in bronze.

 

Themes of love, sex and eroticism are consistently at the centre of Tracey Emin's work, and are here quite evidently the main focus of this exhibition. This time, as Emin herself affirms, the works are mature they are no longer about the artist's introspection, but rather searching beyond and outward, observing herself from a different perspective, which manifests a radical change on her view of the world as determined by an artist who has come a long way.

 

The works on paper, in particular, draw on the symbol of the female nude, used throughout the history of Western painting and sculpture. It is an icon that has often been revisited by Emin to explore emotion and meaning within her oeuvre. The protagonist is her own body, stripped back to the bare primary lines. Blue silhouettes are intensely executed, painted vigorously and driven by a deep consciousness and an intense observation of women, drawn in their most vulnerable yet most powerful positions to celebrate their feminine sensuality.

 

The bronze sculptures finished with white patina and the smaller drawings were recently on display at the Turner Contemporary in Margate, a beautiful minimal and stark building designed by David Chipperfield, which contrasts the simple seaside town on the south-east coast of England where the artist grew up. The inauguration of this personal exhibition at Turner Contemporary coincided with the opening of the London Olympic Games in the summer of 2012.

 

Emin's art is primarily expressionistic, a code for memories and emotions that can be frank and poetic, intimate and universal. Using her own life experiences and often her own body as source material and inspiration for the works that range from painting, drawing, sewn applique, sculpture and neon text, she explores ideas of self-portraiture and narrative disclosure, both intimately bound up with her own personal life story. A unique and particular form of confessional art that has a non-voyeuristic intimacy, since her stories are neither tragic nor sentimental and often deeply resonate with their audience.

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